Well, hello there! It’s been a little while. I took a little social media hiatus, but now I am back and ready to get back to business!

Recently, I noticed Trader Joe’s started stocking this pink grapefruit marmalade, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with this. With it’s unmistakeable grapefruit notes, this marmalade scream to be paired with our core Kenya. These pop tarts are so simple to make, but they make for a perfectly impressive coffee tasting.

For National coffee day this year, Starbucks debuted a new single origin coffee in stores; Guatemala Huehuetenango. This coffee brings a balanced cup with notes of dark chocolate and dried figs, quite a contrast to our core Guatemala offering! I have been working at another store out of town, so most of my meals are quick and on the go during my 90 minute commute. I have been eating a lot of larabars, and decided I wanted to try my hand at making something similar!…

The latest single origin release comes from East Timor. East Timor Tatamailau. This washed dark roast has herbal notes with a cocoa finish.

Since summer is still in full swing here, I really wanted to turn this into an iced coffee. Pulling from the complimentary flavors of maple, I decided to change up the four fundamentals and use maple water in place of regular filtered water.

August’s reserve subscription is Honduras La Campa. This is only the second time that I have seen a coffee from Honduras, the first being Honduras Premier.
The terrain in Honduras is rugged and precipitous, so getting ripe cherries has been a challenge. I am extremely delighted by this cup, unexpectedly fruity and complex with notes of plum and caramel.

This is the second to last reserve subscription coffee that will be available, as the online store is closing in October. I will miss my exclusive coffee every month, but I know Starbucks will come up with something new and exciting to continue to delight us and expand our coffee journey. The final coffee will be Colombia la Casiana, which you can still get (until September 3rd) here….

One of my friends was throwing a surprise party for her store manager, and she asked me if I could make a coffee mocktail to serve at the party. Doing stuff like this is right up my alley! Originally I had planned on doing the mint julep, but I had a few bags of the sun-dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Chelelektu, and I really wanted to do a play on an old fashioned.

Kenya Kariaini was at the scoop bar at the Roastery for a short time in April. I was fortunate enough to get a bag to share with my partners. What struck me was how different this was from our core Kenya….

I might have started something when I brought those banana bread cake pops into work a few weeks ago. Now partners are coming up with new ideas for coffee and cake pops, and you know I am all about that! Breakfast blend paired with a blueberry muffin is so good, so why not turn a blueberry muffin into a cake pop?…

I am loving all of the sun-dried brazil offerings right now! Next month, the Sun Dried Brazil Sertão will launch in reserve stores. This coffee instantly became a favorite amongst my partners. When you think of sun-dried coffeess, you might think of wild fruity notes. These sun-dried Brazil coffees will surprise you, the sun dried Brazil Sertão in particular. Flavors of milk chocolate and toffee with a malty sweetness. I really wanted to do a play on a traditional Brazilian dessert, and the first thing that came to mind was the classic brigadeiro….